I love this book. From the time I first read it – a scary 8 years ago! – it ignited a lust for great sci-fi stories, and became an instant favourite.

All this time on, it’s perhaps not quite as astounding – I’ve read a lot of good stuff since! – but it’s still a well-crafted and utterly engrossing tale.

Clever but emotionally distancing.

http://livredor.livejournal.com/245807.html

Dan Simmons is mindblowing. He’s brilliant. I actually read one of his later books- Ilium- before this one- and the concepts he explores, and the span of knowledge he crams into each book is amazing, but like any good author absolutely crucial to the story. This book seems to get at the heart of everything- humanity, spirituality, good, evil, art, science. And it makes me want to read all the stuff he references- just so I can understand this book more.

Awesome book. I have re-read it once and likely will again.

I love this book. Dan Simmons is scary smart. This is one of my all time favorite sci-fi books.

Weird and wonderful

Extremely literate scifi… with very inventive and convincing worlds and characters. The prose prickles me a bit in places, but, all in all, a real page-turner so far, and much smarter than your average genre novel. The cliffhanger ending is a bit of a bummer, but, it’s a scifi series, so you’re hooked and stuck with it, evidently, for better or worse. I’m betting on better, based on this installment.

I first read this after the sequel (really the second half of the story) came out and was blown away. Galaxy-spanning, mind-blowing space opera (and that’s not a knock in my book) with a remarkably personal and visceral appeal. This is the third time I’ve read it, and it just gets better.